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The Early History of a Worldwide Nuisance

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Few federal agencies have as much bipartisan support as the National Endowment for Democracy. Created in 1983, NED’s stated mission is to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.” In actuality, NED allows U.S. politicians to meddle in foreign elections at the same time they pretend to be spreading democracy. The previous year, Ronald Reagan had announced in a speech to the British Parliament, “Let us now begin ... a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation ... to foster the infrastructure of democracy.” NED’s first chief, Allen Weinstein, later explained the Endowment’s rationale in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” NED aimed to be cleaner than the CIA — not the loftiest standard. NED was created ...

Private: Was the “Good War” Unnecessary? Part 2

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World by Patrick J. Buchanan (New York: Crown Publishers, 2008); 518 pages. Britain’s poor diplomacy in the 1930s also helped bring about Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler. Upon taking power, Hitler attempted to win Mussolini over by offering South Tyrol to Italy. Mussolini did not reciprocate the fondness. He condemned Hitler, thought him a thug and buffoon, and threatened war against him over the incomplete Nazi coup in Austria that killed Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, whom Mussolini respected considerably more than he did Hitler. In 1935 Mussolini agreed with Britain and France at the Stresa Front to uphold the principle of an independent Austria and to oppose German violations of the Versailles Treaty. But Britain itself capitulated to Hitler’s next major move against the terms of Versailles, thus betraying the Stresa Front. On June 18, 1935, an Anglo-German Naval ...

The Wizards of Washington

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Remember that telling scene in The Wizard of Oz when Toto reveals the “great and powerful wizard” as nothing but a homunculus operating an imposing thunder-and-lightning machine? “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he bellows, not knowing enough to quit even when he’s exposed. The government’s response to the current economic turmoil reminds me of that scene. We are assured by the awe-inspiring U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve that if we trust them with essential control of the American economy, all will be set right. “Have confidence. We know what we we’re doing” is the gist of what they say. Behind the curtain, however, are just a bunch of bureaucrats who couldn’t possibly put the economy right because no one can know how to do that. The required information is unavailable to them. They would be better able to give a cowardly lion courage, a tin man a heart, or a scarecrow a brain. Sloppy metaphors to the contrary, ...